I killed my Cucumbers, Twice

I killed my cucumber plants, twice.

The first time I froze them. I was so excited to start my garden that I planted it without looking at the night time temperatures. My seedlings froze one night and I couldn’t revive them. I almost lost some other seedlings but luckily I caught them before they were too far gone and was able to cover them at night.

A couple weeks later I purchased some new cucumber seedlings, planted new cucumber seeds and tried again. 

These plants lasted longer than the first ones. The seedlings grew and the seeds sprouted. I was able to pick a couple cucumbers from them before I killed them for the second time.

This time I didn’t water them. Technically I water them daily. Unfortunately due to my mulching technique, the water didn’t make its way to the root of the cucumber and they dried up and died...again.

Cucumbers are my favorite vegetables. And now I have none in my garden as I messed up, twice. It’s too late in the growing season to replant for a third time, so this year I’ll go without. I’ll take these two learning opportunities and apply the knowledge next year when I plant cucumbers so I don’t make the same mistakes. Here’s what I learnt:

Plant After the Last Spring Frost
Growing up, my mom would plant the garden around Mother’s Day weekend. Usually by the second or third week in May the last spring frost has past.

I find it extremely hard to wait until mid May to plant my garden. Especially when we have a warm spring after a cold winter. From doing my research after I killed my cucumbers the first time, I learnt when my last frost usually happens in my area which is April 30th.

When you know your last frost date, you can plan your planting calendar around that. Cucumbers, which need to be planted after the last frost shouldn’t go into my garden any earlier than April 30th; otherwise I risk them freezing.

A simple google search of where you live will tell you when your average last frost date is. This way you can plan your planting. 

Water the Roots
Last year the weeds in my garden got out of control. You can read more about that here. This year I researched how to minimize weeds in a garden and I learnt about mulching. Grass clippings is a free mulch option and the option I chose to use.

Unfortunately I didn’t account for the grass clipping compacting over time. When this happens (as I read about subsequently), it prevents water from draining through them. This means the root of the plant doesn’t get watered.

I will continue to mulch as I had great success with all my other plants. What I did differently with the other plants once I saw the grass clippings begin to compact was pull them away from the base of the plants. This way the water could get to root.

Here’s hoping my cucumbers survive my gardening blunder next year!